 Child
Labour Project
Ages:
ages 10 and older
Languages: All
Facilitator: Bob Carter in Australia, Salimata
Sene in Senegal, Lockias Chitanana, Zimbabwe, Udara Soysa
in Sri Lanka and Melissa Buckley in Australia
Contact: For more information about participating
in this or other iEARN projects, write to iearn@iearn.org
or see http://media.iearn.org/projects
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| If there be anything bad;
If there be anything hated;
It is child labour.
If there be anything discouraged;
If there be anything disapproved;
It is child labour.
If there be anything caused by poverty;
If there be anything caused by circumstances;
It is child labour.
If there be anything hated by children;
If there be anything orphans can't avoid;
It is child labour.
Child labour;
The robber of our youth;
The robber of our rights;
You've done much harm already;
Please leave us alone.
By Bernard Pungu and Emmanuel Nzombe
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| A street rat
Who is he?
What is he?
As they look at him,
They call him a street rat.
He cries there alone,
While people go past with children.
People are too cruel
To help him.
Oh, that little one!,
Say some people
And some say
That filthy rat.
He has no one to care.
The tears in his eyes
Can't anyone see?
Oh, please,
Oh, please.
Help him.
He is
Still a human.
By Uthpala Perera (11 years old)
Royal College, Sri Lanka
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|
 Child
Labour
The iEARN "Fight Against Child Labour" project
provides a place for youth to research, discuss issues
and devise, develop and implement action agendas.
The project started in 1996 in support of the Global March
Against Child Labour by Bairnsdale Secondary College in Australia.
The project's organising students attended the Melbourne rally
in March 1998 where they distributed badges in support of
the March. The students collected email messages as part of
their support of the Broad Meadows Middle School (MA USA)
On-line March Against Child Labour. They assisted in the successful
collection of over 3000 email messages against child labour
which were amassed by Broad Meadows. Since 1997 young people
from Africa, Australia, North America, Europe and Asia have
made their voices heard through discussions of child labour
and exploitation. They have taken on action agendas, including
the raising of funds to provide educational opportunities
for child labourers. |
The project seeks to answer the question, why?
- Why do millions of children suffer fear, lack of dignity
and wretched pain of physical labour?
- Why is the basic human desire for some childhood fantasy and
carelessness not there for children?
- Why is education not an unquestionable right to children?
- Why are children’s lives shortened?
- Why are the children’s lives and their happiness undervalued
and why cannot they share the wealth of this world?Following the
question of “why?” is the demand that something be
done, that change must happen. The demand is rooted in the belief
that we are all citizens of the world, that what happens to one
of us matters to us all and that none is immune to responsibility
for the welfare of the other.
 Project
Activities
Students wishing to be involved in this project can put forward
their ideas through prose, poetry, art and cartoons. They can contribute
on a "one-off" basis, involve themselves in on-going discussions
or commit themselves to taking action along with others. Communication
is by email to the project facilitators or through the project discussion
forum. Students at different place around the world have carried
out local face-to-face presentations on different issues on child
labour. These include marches and fund raising activities. One important
fund raising activity was the Fundraising For Children in East Timor
which involved a group of six students from Bairnsdale Secondary
College, Australia.
Through assistance from the Asia Education Foundation, Australia,
we have been able to produce a CD with all the contribution made
by students until May 2002. In July 2003 a project booklet was launched.
The contents of the CD were converted into booklet which was distributed
at the iEARN conference in Japan. The booklet has allowed us to
reach many communities around the world including those that do
not have access to computer technology and the Internet.
A letter for those who exploit children
Dear parents, Dear guardian,
Am I 8 years old ? Or 10 years ? No, I'm 15 years old.
Please let me go to school; it is not too late for me to learn.
I'm sure I will succeed because I want to be one of those
who are around the table to decide what the world will become
tomorrow.
I'm tired to carry a trunk of water, to be in the market
to carry baskets of vegetables for ladies.
Oh yes, I'm tired and I'm sure you will understand because
it is better to get food for every day than to get it for
today and not to be sure to get it tomorrow.
When I go to school, I will not only be educated but I hope
to have a job. For god sake let me go to school because I
want to be the lawyer defending children working every where
in the world.
I want to be the judge deciding for those who exploit children
through the world.
I hope you will hear my voice, you will see my sadness and
think about my future. Through my person that's a whole population
of children you're hearing and seeing.
We need help from every one.
Thanks,
Classluther
Martin Luther King Junior School
Gueye Dakar
Senegal |
Project Coordinators
Information about current activities of the project activities
can be obtained from the project web site: http://www.iearn.org.au/clp
Fundraising Activities
We decided we could help out with the books and school supplies.
We started thinking of ideas of how to raise funds so we could buy
equipment to send over there. Some of our ideas were to have an
out-of-uniform day at school where the students pay 50c to come
to school out of uniform, a sausage sizzle and a movie screening
for Bairnsdale West Primary School students. We started organising
these things and we also placed collection boxes at the offices
of both campuses of the Secondary College so students, staff and
the public could donate new and used stationary equipment to us
to give to the East Timorese. We got a very satisfactory result
from the collection boxes with lots of equipment being donated.
On a lovely day last year (1999) we had our sausage sizzle. We had
a great response from the students and raised lots of money. In
cooperation with the Student Representative Council (S.R.C.) we
had our out-of-uniform day which also was very successful. Soon
after we went to Bairnsdale Office Supplies to purchase stationary
items to send to East Timor. After we had purchased them we added
the donated items to them and placed them in mailing boxes. We then
waited until Peter O'Dea came with the aid truck to Bairnsdale to
load it up. We did that early this year and they should be at Sister
Lourdes by now. Organising is still continuing on the movie screening.
We are still excepting donations because a shipping crate is currently
being organised to be sent over to Timor Community First .
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